All about the Foundation

It's time to write again...about the last couple of weekends!  I'm a bit behind, aren't I?  Well, we must consider the fact that I've been working really hard at my semester at school, and this one is a doozie!!

The only time I was on site working was Friday the when the cement truck came to fill up the trenches Gabe and Dad (mostly Gabe :0) dug underneath the east side addition as well as a few dining room interior underpinnings.  It arrived at 2:00, just after we did.  I chatted with a friendly neighbor while Dad and Gabe tried to figure out what would be the best way for the cement truck to back up into the right spot to pour.

They must work quickly!  The next shot Gabe is helping the chute to get directed into the opening for the underpinnings.

Here is a before and after of the underpinnings:

Before

After

It was a lot of work for the guys getting the concrete in the right places.  Gabe was carrying two 5 gallon buckets full of concrete all around!  Yowzers!  I came in handy when it came time to filling in the cinder blocks around the perimeter of the kitchen/dining room crawl space with leftover concrete.  Dad was placing anchor bolts into the wet concrete around the perimeter so as to attach boards for the joist support later.  Here I am, pitching in where I can:

  

It was our warmest day on the job too, getting up in the 80's, in the middle of March, how bizarre!!  Lovely though--lots of things are blooming early.

Gabe spent a good amount of time cleaning the concrete off the buckets and tools too.  What a renaissance man!  :)

I leveled out top of the concrete filled ditches such that about a 1/2" of rebar was sticking up:

Here's another picture from the next day, when it rained:

The next day, Saturday, Gabe went out to the house and I stayed home to work on a project.  He and Dad covered up the underpinnings with vapor barrier and gravel.

He also cleaned up the area in the other crawl space where the wood chuck had been digging around.  My aunt and uncle also stopped by the house, so Mom and I went out to meet them there for a half an hour over lunch.  It was a dreary, rainy day, but it was fun showing off our project!  Gabe finished up the day by making some sawhorses upstairs with some of our reclaimed wood with the fact in mind that we might be getting a good table saw from my uncle.

Last weekend, I didn't make it to the site at all!  On Friday, I went with my mom up to Delaware to a museum for school.  Gabe and Dad were on their own, ha ha.  They worked together to prepare the "outside" crawl space for the mud slab to be poured.  They dug down the grade a bit and laid vapor barrier and gravel.

Voila!

Looks good, eh?  If you are into that sort of thing.  When you are invested in the project, it takes on a whole new meaning :)

Gabe moved the conduit for the power line to the well so that it wouldn't be outside the wall:

We had lumber delivered from a local lumber yard and covered it with plastic in the yard.  Gabe also patched the roof where the was plastic covering the old chimney hole as it had become compromised.

Notice the patch in the upper left hand side

So the next day (Saturday) I was working on a project again and Gabe and Dad were back at it.  The next shot is of the boards having been attached to the perimeter with the anchor bolts.

Here is a wider shot of the crawl space and the lumber that was moved inside.  Also, more plywood is laid out on the joists to give us a little more room.

Gabe also removed some sections of the bottom plate of the dividing wall so he could add mortar to make it level. 

Gabey diligently taking pictures!

They finished up the day by adding some more gravel to the interior crawl space.  It doesn't look like a lot has changed in the last week, but we want to make sure the foundation is solid. So that was that for last weekend.

Of Piers and Footings

This is Gabe this time. The past week has been eventful, and not necessarily in a good way. Last weekend after working with our friends, Evan and I ended up with a little surprise on Sunday/Monday:

For the weekend, Bethany was hanging out at wedding showers, so I was accompanied by my father-in-law. The plan was to dig out the footings underneath the current bathroom and what was left of the porch. We discovered that the piers that were currently supporting the structure were not at all solid (they were shaky, cracked, and about 8" below the ground!), so we set about to dig out proper footings for that end of the house. I attacked a tree stump that was directly next to one pier while my FIL worked on another section. I eventually ended up hooking up my truck (the one Bethany used to give me such a hard time about driving... HEATED SEATS!!!) and pulling the stump out after some digging and hacking away at it. I may or may not have slightly moved one of the piers in the process (oops!), but the stump was no more. I then set about digging between the piers to allow for the footing to be poured.


One of the many downsides of Bethany not being around to help was the lack of photographic documentation... oh well. We got the first two footings dug out, and then I set about to digging the last one. My FIL was exhausted, so I was mostly alone for the last one. By the time I was done, my arms ached and I was pretty tired out too, but we felt really good about getting so much done!

On Sunday, my father-in-law called and suggested that we remove two of the piers that were not really doing much. We wanted to pour the footings in one run as much as possible, so we decided that Monday
evening I would go out and help him make temporary supports and remove the two piers. After supporting the two corners with wood beams braced on cement block, we smashed and removed the piers:

We are taking a break to visit family for Spring Break, but check back after that to see the new footings and our progress!